Creative types are thought to be more likely to suffer from mental illnesses, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. A new large-scale study of the Swedish population helps confirm this link.

Last year, researchers at the Karolinska Institutet near Stockholm found that families with a history of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia were more likely to produce artists and scientists. They built on this evidence in a new study, published this month in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, which covers a larger population sample and a wider scope of psychiatric diagnoses...

Creativity (in the Artsy Fartsey venue) as witnessed by me is more pronounced in the Bi-Polar folks...
I have 2 friends (both Bi-Polar) that are so talented and creative... they pretty much have to be Artists because they can’t hold down a job ... when on their meds they are normal... off their meds not so much.
Both tell me the same thing that even though when on their meds they can function and interact in regular society they both prefer not taking their meds because they are on some kind of natural high and to them everyone else is blind and moving in slow motion (yeah but they are incoherent)... but they produce lots of Art... and it’s pretty good
House Rules ... They must be on their meds if they want to visit or attend functions, we all agree that there are far fewer flashing lights and handcuffs that way

However, my daughter is extremely creative, and i worry about her with our family history. She’s into theater, singing and writing. She was an excellent flute player at 15, and was starting to win all sorts of awards.

Last year, she came down with musician’s and writer’s cramp (focal dystonia). It causes uncontrollable muscle movements and cramping.

It’s made worse by stress. The doctors have said she fits the mold for that disorder. High achiever and doesn’t have good body awareness so they just push their bodies through pain and don’t know when to stop.

It makes me wonder about mental illness. Maybe they don’t know when to stop. Maybe if you catch it early, you can prevent them from falling into psychosis.

I will go further and say they no only are coincidental, they are somewhat connected. And I will also say they are most often not permanent problems in one’s brain.

When a person pushes themselves along artistic or creative frontiers, the bipolar parts come out along with the creativity. It is the cost of being creative. If the same person did not drive themselves as hard in an artistic endeavor, their bipolar disorder symptoms would go away or be sharply reduced.

Perhaps it is the 'response' of the 'normals' to creative people that begins the 'issue'. Maybe this it is 'we' they want to 'fix'/lol. . .

That said; think these studies are designed to create another 'victim' class; of children and adults; with 'special needs' - who need Government assistance; special 'therapies'; 'special parenting'; all designed/implemented by a caring Government.

(One that is in truth; a sick - mentally ill - Government; whereby this Government collective of Liberals; cannot come up with enough labels for the population it so, wants to control; nor enough 'ways/means' to achieve their goal.)

Would offer, as well; that any 'serious' left-wing Liberal is mentally ill. We know they suffer from a 'God-complex' - enabled by a psychotic-sized narcissism; which in turn; gives rise to their ultimately, hideous ideology and world view; along with their heinous MO's to recreate - and impose upon us - the world they see, in their sick 'mind's eye'. . .

I don’t believe any of this babble I’ve been an artist all my life and i’m none of these things they mention but i’m supposed to believe i’m sick because i’m a creative person how the hell did i become Conservative from birth if i’m so sick in the head ?

I do concede that some mentally ill people are very creative but i don’t think one thing has to do with the other but on the same hand some people who are not creative are very mentally disturbed actors can make you laugh and cry but that don’t make them creative someone else writes their script and they play act to get the feeeeelings into it your feeeeeling and theirs .

This is just another notch in the belt of government doctors and socialist engineering

17
posted on 10/17/2012 5:23:22 PM PDT
by ATOMIC_PUNK
(Any man may make a mistake ; none but a fool will persist in it . { Latin proverb })

It couldn't have anything to do with reefer bars and pot dens along with a few hash pubs sprinkled in could it ? Get a map. Pot is illegal in Sweden. You are either thinking of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, or the Christiana district in Copenhagen, Denmark. I've seen dumb high kids get arrested in Malmo,Sweden, after getting off the train from Copenhagen. High Drug mules with more piercings than functioning neurons are easy targets.

Hmmm I think this might be one of those A/B things where artists are psychotic or is it that they become artists because they (we) can’t express ourselves verbally. Steven King scares me. I do not want to know his mind.

As for your daughter, stress seems to be a major factor. There are self help psych books on biofeedback which helps us control ourselves when we are stressed. Like the SEALS training. Controlling your breathing, heart rate, the whole shebang. Becoming aware of your body can be learned, like playing the flute. Yoga would be great. There is a 90 year old yoga teacher. Beautiful! Just an idea.

I thought that I had a very creative painting, but then Bob, one of the voices in my head, said he didn’t like it. Steve, another voice in my head, said he’d pay $100 for the painting, so I sold it to him. Bob said Steve was crazy for buying my painting, so we told him he had to buy us a round. He said, “No way! Steve seems to be loaded.” So we went to go to McGintys, you know McGintys.....nice little place down on Elm Street. Joe is the bartender there. It’s a wonderful place. Bob and Steve can talk to a lot of people there. Ohhh, we while away the afternoons discussing politics and fashion and gardening. Mrs. Jessup said she had raised a three pound rutabaga. Steve scoffed at her and said that nobody in this part of the country could grow a rutabaga larger than two pounds. Well, Mrs. Jessup marched right out the door and came back 30 minutes later and threw a rutabaga on the table. “Now, do you believe me?”, she asked. Steve had gone to use the facilities, so Bob and I inquired about her plant. “That looks like a Spanish rutabaga”, opined Bob. “What’s the difference?, asked Mrs. Jessup. “Spanish rutabagas are sweeter and have more fiber”, replied Bob. “I don’t think you know your donkey from a Spanish rutabaga”, said Mrs. Jessup. I ordered a Harvey Wallbanger for Mrs. Jessup and that seemed to defuse a possibly nasty situation.

23
posted on 10/17/2012 5:48:51 PM PDT
by blueunicorn6
("A crack shot and a good dancer")

Yoga is actually highly recommended for dystonia! Her physical therapist will be teaching her a lot of body awareness. If she can play flute again, she’ll be learning the Alexander Technique and the Feldenkrais method of body mapping while playing.

We’ve slowed her down academically. Screw the fast paced high school life. She is not in honors classes anymore, and she is taking math online. She loves taking the online class!

If you lead a relatively unremarkable, normal, stable, happy life there is little to compel or even drive you to express yourself creatively in a way that is striking and thought provoking to other relatively unremarkable, normal, stable, happy people. It would seem, well, ordinary. And, for the vast majority, that is not a bad thing.

An unusual way of looking at the world expressed in a visual way through painting, sculpture or photography is going to come from a person who is at least a little unusual, whether or not this unusualness is outwardly obvious or more inward and subtle.

What’s even more unusual is the drive to even start seriously pursuing an independent, long term creative endeavor, let alone continue on in the face of little to no reward, financially or critically.

This requires a degree of drive and compulsion that, when combined with an already unusual visual, musical or literary take on things, leads to favoring people who are unusual in clinical terms.

I’m not talking about dabblers or hobbyists, here, obviously. These same factors are at work with highly inventive, driven scientists as well.

Crazy artists, mad scientists, the stereotype didn’t stick because it was inaccurate. There’s at least a grain of truth to it.

Makes sense to me, I’ve got both traits. But I guess I was remembering back in high school there was a clear segregation between the two. People who couldn’t cut it academically were nudged toward the art classes, people who were good at math and science were labelled “geeks” and told not to waste their time with art. I got weird looks from both groups, because I can’t pick up on boundaries like that unless they’re spelled out for me. It wasn’t until the end of senior year that someone told me I wasn’t supposed to enjoy my pottery class because I was too good at math and science.

Then again, I sometimes think I fit the stereotype of the mad scientist :p

Are you left handed too? As the wife of a lefty and the mother of a lefty (both creative engineers)I’ve come to the conclusion that lefties and righties don’t think alike.

I belonged to a quilting guild at one time, and I noticed that when we were all seated at a frame together, the lefties had to be at the end, of course. I also noticed that the lefties in the group were some of our most creative sewers. They had all figured out clever shortcuts to accomplish piecing that was difficult to accomplish in the traditional way. These were methods that my right handed brain had to really struggle to copy. But, I found I could do them easily if I followed their directions step by step.

So, it dawned on me why my husband and I could never agree on how to accomplish a task. We are thinking about it from the opposite direction. So, I went home and announced to my son (who was studying for his doctorate in engineering) that he should look for a left handed woman to marry because she would be easier to get along with.

He just rolled his eyes at me and said, “I don’t want to marry another engineer, and you wouldn’t want me to bring home an ARTIST, would you?” He’s happily married and expecting his 5th child. At least 3 of those kids are lefties too!

You clever girl. You are well balanced! I think that the reason that many lefties are so clever about figuring out methods for accomplishing things (like intricate sewing -- or my husband's inventions) is because they are raised in a world where most tools are made for right handed people.

My PhD level engineer son was not recommended for advancement to a regular 1st grade because he failed some "test" devised by his kindergarten teacher. When I inquired about this "test", I was told it was because he couldn't cut out a circle with scissors. I asked if he had right handed scissors, or left handed scissors. You know the answer.

There were 12 boys who were recommended to go to a special 1st grade where they wouldn't be taught to read in the normal time frame. Guess what? 11 of the 12 were left handed boys! Mine was sent to Catholic school where Sr. Julianne had him reading the San Francisco Chronicle by Christmas. In the spring of the year he won the Science Fair for the whole school.

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